Black Page Turners Features Simone Kelly (Interview) By Cleavester

Black Page Turners Features Simone Kelly (Interview) By Cleavester

Recently, I had the opportunity to sitdown with Simone Kelly to discuss her recent release ‘Like a Fly on the Wall,’ Life, and so much more.

A Cleavester Interview -READ FULL INTERVIEW HERE!

Cleavester: Congrats on your new novel ‘Like a Fly on the Wall.’ Tell the readers about it?Simone Kelly: Thank’s so much! I’m very excited about my new baby. It was released on July 11th and it about an Intuitive named Jacques Berradi. He’s Moroccan-born and Manhattan-raised, his genuine, sexy-smooth allure goes hand in hand with a unique gift. Since Jacques was young, he has had the ability to read peoples’ energies, communicate with spirit guides, and even catch glimpses of people’s futures. Now a professional “intuitive counselor,” Jacques’s clients pay him handsomely for his insight. Unfortunately, Jacques’s psychic abilities don’t come with an off switch to tune out the world’s noise, nor do they always provide him with easy answers; recently Jacques has begun having dark, alarming dreams about his beloved father, a Moroccan immigrant who died when he was a boy.

Meet Kylie Collins, an adventurous, Miami twentysomething who is trying to find her footing after being laid off from a cushy music industry job. When a mishap brings them together, Kylie is instantly mesmerized by Jacques’s cool demeanor and intuitive abilities, and he’s captivated by her outgoing charm and breezy good looks. Seeking to learn more about her family history—including the identity of the father she’s never known—Kylie visits Jacques’s office to gain some insight about her future, and about her free-spirited and headstrong Jamaican mother, True.

But on the night that they meet, a rolling blackout cuts off power throughout Miami. Kylie and Jacques, and a few of his clients, head to the only place in the neighborhood with enough light to see: Like a Fly on the Wall Detective Agency. There, Kylie serendipitously lands herself the perfect new job as an apprentice private eye.
As partners, Jacques and Kylie are an unstoppable duo. Can Jacques’s intuition reveal the scandalous history of Kylie’s mother and father? Will Kylie’s newfound detective skills uncover evidence about the death of Jacques’s father? And will the chemistry that charges their friendship bubble over into something much, much hotter…?

Cleavester: Where did the inspiration for this book come from?Simone Kelly: Well, there were a few, but I’ll give you the two main ones. One was inspired by a family mystery in Jamaica from my own family that still remains unsolved. It lead me to write about family secrets, since almost everyone can relate to that. The other part is that I’m fascinated with intuition, spirituality, and metaphysics overall, so I wanted to show what it’s like to live the life of a psychic.

Cleavester: How long did it take for you to write it?Simone Kelly:It was just an idea way back in 2004 and then I wrote it in about two years as a self-published book in November 2015. I landed my publishing deal with William Morrow/HarperCollins in early 2016. They wanted me to write a longer book instead of a sequel like I originally planned. That second part of the book only took about five months. Then another few months of editing with a team of editors.

Cleavester: What kind of person is the lead character Jacques Berradi?Simone Kelly:He’s sensual, sexy, spiritual, kind, and the voice of reason for many. He is the friend and lover that many women dream they could have. I have some ladies booking flights to Morocco in search of him right now!